I HAVE RE-BUILT MY WEBSITE AT ANOTHER LOCATION.
I LOST ACCESS TO 1/2 OF THIS WEBSITE DUE TO A MISPLACED PASSWORD AND
THEREFORE I CANNOT PERFORM ANY UPDATES.
FOR MY NEWEST AND UPDATED WEBSITE, PLEASE GO TO:
VIRGINIA OPOSSUM CARE
MBD PICTORIAL:
MBD is a terrible, dibilitating and sometimes fatal disease. PLEASE read the
article that is linked to the bottom of this page. MBD need not happen.....it is preventable!
Meet Beetle Juice. BJ has MBD. Notice the way his mouth doesn't close all the way.
Photo compliments of Brenda Ice
Beetle Juice again....take note of the way his legs are formed.
Photo compliments of Brenda Ice
Look closely.....note the jaw that is unable to close. The lower jaw also
appears deformed/underdeveloped. All this poor possum can manage to eat
is soft or pureed foods.
Note the weakness in the legs.
For more indepth information about the devastating effects of MBD, go to:
Nutritional Metabolic Bone Disease.
As an aside, since MBD can be very painful, it might be useful to use one of the
following herbs to help with the pain and inflammation:
Alfalfa, Evening Primrose, Willow, and Celery. There are others, but these are
among the most common. You can buy these in capsules at health food stores and
celery can be fed fresh. Alfalfa is also very nutritious and is a good source of Vitamin
K, which should be considered if the animal is on Vitamin K therapy for
any reason. Bach's Rescue Remedy might also be helpful, in conjunction
with the herbs.
The following is one rehabbers story about how she combated MBD:
Just thought I would share my success story with my MBD opossum.
Her name is Baby Girl and ready for release soon. I received a litter of 5 babies
that were severely underweight with terrible hair loss. I began my normal
regimen of trying to nourish them as I always have with formula and baby foods. I
was so excited when they started to gain weight, as they were gaining 5-10
grams every other day. And then the worst thing happened. One of my babies
stopped climbing and started crawling on egg shells. I had never seen MBD before
but I knew this was the problem.
Of course, it was a long holiday weekend and there was no vet open for 4 days, so I
was on my own and stressed out completely. I contacted the NOS and other
opossum rehabbers, in all states of the USA, for advise and received so many
conflicting diagnoses, cures, diets, etc. So, I did what I thought was best
until I could get to a wildlife vet.
Here are pictures of her over that weekend so you can see
by her health why I was worried:
...........
I conversed with Brenda Ice, a possum rehabber from Aiken SC for the entire
week. She kept my chin up because I had turned into a cry baby by this time.
Without her I would have gone completely insane.
On the first week day after the holiday, I reached Cheryl Hoggard from Piedmont
Wildlife and took Baby Girl in to see my vet, Dr. Jansky the same day. Between
the two of them we finally came up with a healing solution for my baby. Dr.
Jansky drew blood to check her protein, calcium, phospherous levels. It
was obvious that there was too much protein and not enough calcium
and phospherous.
Here is a picture of her 1 week after treatment.
Notice that her hair looks much better and her joints are not as swollen:
Pictures after 2 weeks of treatment:
(She's in the middle)
.............
The treatment was as follows:
FORMULA: My formula recipe with both Vet's suggestion of additional calcium.
2 cups Esbilac puppy formula
4 cups water
1/2 jar of Gerber apple sauce
1/2 teaspoon of Nutri-cal
400 mg of calcium crushed to a powder
1 heaping tablespoon of plain yogurt w/active cultures
Equal parts of Gerber rice cereal and Gerber rice w/bananas to thicken
VITAMIN D:
Naturally; 30 minutes (minimum) of indirect sunlight outside every day. Window
sunlight was not sufficient. This was also an instruction from Cheryl Hoggard of PWC.
I did this for 3 weeks.
SOLID DIET: Hills Science Diet Kitten
I gave the litter this formula recipe 4 times a day, in a cat dish sized ceramic
dish. I woke them up to eat it. The baby with the MBD got her own mix
of formula, per Cheryl's instruction. She said to give the baby 75
mg per kg per day divided into however many feedings. If there was no calcium
available, Tums would do. Tums oral suspension dosage is 1 to 1 1/2 grams per 5
meals. I could not find a pharmacy with the oral suspension so I purchased the
tums chewables (fruit flavored) and the calcium tablets from Wal Mart. I broke down
the tums and calcium tablets to equal 62.5 mg per feeding. The tums were
easier on the stomach so I mixed it with the calcium tabs.
According to her weight of 300 grams, I dosed her with 62.5 mg of calcium in her
formula 4 times a day. I broke down the tums and calcium tablets to equal 62.5
mg per feeding. The tums were easier on the stomach so I mixed it with the
calcium tabs. I fed her separate from the others in a jar lid so she had a
precise dose. Cheryl also told me she uses Hills Science Diet kitten (dry) so I
switched them to that. My vet Dr. Jansky agreed and even gave me
complimentary bag. Dr. Jansky told me to dose her with .05 ml of amoxi (diluted
to 5 mg) twice a day for 2 weeks to help build her immune system,
so I did.
Along with the formula, I gave them no orange vegetables and very little fruit.
They got broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower, 1 1/2 grapes
cut into pieces, 1 blue berry each, and in another dish mixed together, Gerber
bananas, Gerber pears and Gerber mixed vegetables. More mixed vegetables than
fruit. (I tried the peters food mix from NOS and they would not touch it). I
sprinkled a little (just a pinch) crushed calcium all over their fresh
vegetable dish.
Today, I have 5 healthy babies ready for release. Baby girl looks great and is
climbing like a champ. They are now being de-wormed for the first time (they
are finally healthy enough), and I will release them in a week or so.
Here are pictures of her now:
..............
I am so proud of these babies, they are real fighters. Now if they will stop
wanting to climb all over Mommy and be independent we are in good shape.
Special thanks to Cheryl Hoggard, Dr. Jansky and Brenda Ice.
Sandy Mascho
NC licensed rehabber
**** As an aside, when I read Sandy's mention of
giving sunlight to this possum, it made me think of how important sunlight is to
pet birds and reptiles. The special daytime reptile lights insure that the
animals can absorb the calcium supplements we give to them.
Might not the same work for the opossum?
(Provided they are kept at a distance so as not to overheat the animal).
Some of these special lights emit very little heat.****
NECROPSY PHOTOS
